Buster's Buffalo Round-Up

Rapid City, South Dakota

In South Dakota, we went on a buffalo round-up with Levi and his family. They gathered 1,400 buffalo, and gave them checkups. It was like the world's biggest waiting room!

We camped out one night. There were songs around the campfire, and great food, including delicious beans. Try this baked bean recipe. They're really good!

Hey! A song about me! Los Viajeros wrote Song for Buster. You know, I think there should be more songs about me. They would be very popular!

I also met Chris in South Dakota. He's a member of the Lakota tribe, a group of American Indians who live in this area. The Lakota are also called the Western Sioux Indians. That's hard to spell, but easy to say: "soo."

Chris came with us to the Crazy Horse Memorial. Crazy Horse was a great Lakota chief. He helped defeat General Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Muffy thinks that "Muffy" songs are better. Lots of words DO rhyme with "Muffy": fluffy, stuffy... uh, enoughy? But how hard can it be to work "General Custer" and "feather duster" into a "Buster" song?

The Crazy Horse statue shows him riding a horse. When it's done, it will be the biggest statue in the world! Just his face is nine stories tall. That's bigger than most buildings in Elwood City!

Chris says the statue is "lelo-washte." That's Lakota for "cool." Another Lakota word is "totanka." That means "buffalo." The buffalo are very important in Lakota culture.

I even went snake hunting with Chris. He finds them, and picks them right up. But he knows which ones aren't dangerous. Of course, now I see imaginary snakes everywhere. Aaaiieeee!

There were lots of animals in South Dakota. I even saw an antelope (a kind of deer) and a prairie dog. I thought that was one weird-looking dog... until Dad told me it's not a dog at all, but more like a gopher.